The Talk
by Liv Wilder
Summary: '"So…you and Richard," purrs Meredith, her tone dripping with hidden meaning; this, the loaded salvo she launches into the middle of the too quiet loft, sending ripples spreading out across the lake of loaded silence that stretches between them...' Vague spoilers for 5x10. ONE-SHOT. COMPLETE.


Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. Just having a little fun. Promise to give them back undamaged when I'm done.

_A/N: This was written for BlueOrchid96 and is based on a prompt she gave me for a one-shot conversation between Kate & Meredith that takes place in the kitchen of the loft. It's loosely connected to the backstory for 5x10 'Significant Others', though I've played down the severity of Alexis' bout of Mono to fit the story. Hope you enjoy!_

* * *

_"Jealousy is all the fun you think they had." - Erica Jong, 'Fear of Flying'._

_**The Talk**_

"_So_…you and Richard," purrs Meredith, her tone dripping with hidden meaning; this, the loaded salvo she launches into the middle of the too quiet loft, sending ripples spreading out across the lake of loaded silence that stretches between them.

"Mmm-hmm. Me and Richard," repeats Kate dryly, with the barest nod of her head, words clipped, keeping her expression and her voice both neutral. Her minimalist reply is replete with nothing but nothingness that says '_mind your own business, bitch_'.

They're standing awkwardly in Castle's kitchen, both on opposite sides of the island, like combatants preparing for an old-fashioned dual, ten paces apart, the man of the house having left before his ex-wife even arrived, to collect Alexis from Columbia with yet another mammoth load of laundry, while the girl is recovering from a dose of Mono diagnosed by the campus doctor.

Meredith is dressed in a low-cut, skintight, red dress that just screams '_here I am_ _big boy,_ _come take me now_', the long, gold, rope necklace dangling between her pushed up breasts further aimed at highlighting her assets. Her pale legs are bare, even in winter, and she's wearing a pair of black patent peep toe pumps, perfect, red-lacquered pedicure just peeping through. Her white fox-fur jacket has been discarded over the back of a chair, along with her ridiculously expensive looking snakeskin purse.

Kate, by contrast, is wearing a crisp white shirt under a French navy v-neck sweater and Castle's favorite pair of skin-tight, dark blue jeans that hug her ass to perfection and are just the perfect length for wearing with her four-inch black ankle boots. She looks tall, leggy, sexy, but above all, classy, in the face of the brazen sexuality that is ex-wife number one.

* * *

"I always knew it was only a matter of time, you know," Meredith needles, when Kate fails to respond further to her opening gambit.

"Is that so?" replies Kate flatly, trying to telegraph her complete disinterest in _anything_ Meredith thinks she might know.

Kate sips from a bottle of water while flipping through The Metro section of the New York Times, eyes dancing over a story about a partial building collapse on the Avenue of the Americas, as she tries hard to tune her out.

"Oh, yes," Meredith replies enthusiastically, not letting it go. "A blind man could see exactly what your intentions were from the outset," she adds boldly. "But then you didn't exactly try to hide them, did you? I'm just surprised it took you so long."

"I'm…my…_excuse me_?" splutters Kate, setting the bottle of water she's been drinking from back down on the counter with a slosh, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, as a dark stain soaks through the layers of newsprint obliterating all pictures and words in its path.

"Though there are _definitely_ times when it pays to be obvious, of course. I should know. I wrote the book on that one," Meredith muses aloud. "Besides, Richard is a sweet man, but he can be rather…_slow_ on the uptake," the actress rambles on, oblivious to Kate's open-mouthed horror.

"Are…are we even talking about the _same_ person?" asks Kate, furious to hear Castle described this way.

"Oh, come now, Detective. I'm sure we both know what a naughty little boy he can be. How…_inventive_ he can get between the sheets. Doesn't stop him being a little clueless at times."

"Castle is _not_ clueless," counters Kate, picking on the most benign thing this harpy has just said, because no way is she comparing notes with this woman on her partner's considerable prowess in bed. "Far from it."

"Oh, still going with '_Castle_', I see. Then perhaps you two aren't as intimate, or as far advanced in this little relationship of yours as I thought. Listen, if you're not serious about him…" she says, smirking at Kate in a predatory, conspiratorial fashion, the final little lift of her over-plucked eyebrow clarifying her meaning if any clarification were even required. "I'm not averse to a little..._sharing_."

"Are you _serious_ right now?" barks Kate, a shiver of disgust passing through her.

Kate's having trouble sharing the same airspace with this woman, so no way, no how, is she sharing her man with this tramp in any shape or form.

"Well, it was worth a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say," she positively sings, flicking her hair over one shoulder, shaking her coppery red locks down across her arched spine even although no one who cares is here to witness her flirtatious little display.

* * *

Kate turns her back on Castle's deep-fried Twinkie, eh…ex-wife, needing a moment to herself, a moment to suppress the murderous thoughts racing through her head, pretty sure no one would argue that she wasn't amply provoked if her hands were found around the woman's throat and the case ever made it to court.

She would absolutely _kill_ for a drink right now. An icy cold Mojito, perspiration streaking the chilled glass, or a shot of Castle's fancy, Russian vodka straight from the freezer. Hell, a bottle of cough syrup was looking pretty good at this precise moment.

But she settles on a cup of tea, since it's barely ten o'clock in the morning; chamomile to calm her nerves or put her into a waking coma, whichever comes first, she doesn't care. Anything to drown out this intensely irritating woman.

She boils the kettle, her back turned to her partner's ex, setting out two cups without asking Meredith if she wants one too. Because she might be mad as hell, but she has no intention of being called rude. And maybe, if she's really lucky, the chamomile will blunt the woman's runaway mouth and overtly sexual gestures.

* * *

"You really don't like me, do you?" snipes Meredith from behind, interrupting Kate's attempt at self-control.

'_You've actually noticed something beyond the end of your own nose for once?' _thinks Kate, managing to keep this little gem to herself…for now.

"Doesn't really matter what I think," she answers calmly, squeezing out the herbal teabag with such vigor that it bursts, releasing a stream of pale leaves into the pot so that she has to fetch the strainer from the drawer in order to pour out two cups.

"Oh, I beg to differ. Richard and I will always have Alexis in common, so the fact remains that we are forever linked to one another through our daughter."

'_More's the pity_,' thinks Kate, biting her tongue, trying not to rise to the implied intimacy in her statement.

"And if you're to be a part of the equation…"

"I love Alexis," says Kate, a little more fiercely than she intends. "Surely that's all that counts?"

"Oh, you love my daughter, do you? How…how _sweet_," she sneers, her voice dripping saccharin insincerity, with just an edge of jealous insecurity creeping in behind, like a thief.

She watches Kate move around Castle's kitchen with familiar ease, opening cabinets and drawers to fetch everything she needs, and it spikes her jealously even further.

"Just what _are_ you doing here at this hour anyway?" asks Meredith, deciding a strong rebuttal is in order, lifting her skinny wrist to consult the expensive gold watch dangling from birdlike bones.

She can see how her daughter could latch onto this woman, get close to her; with her sharp intelligence, her kind nature, her emotional depth and a curious mind that makes her so much more like Alexis' than she knows herself to be.

"_Me?_ What am _I_ doing here? At my boyfriend's loft at this hour," says Kate, stating the blindingly obvious.

"Boyfriend? Oh, how cute. But don't you think you two are maybe a little…long in the tooth to be referring to one another as girlfriend and boyfriend?"

"I'm sure you have a _much_ better suggestion," says Kate witheringly, bracing herself.

"I just assumed he'd have asked you by now," says Meredith cattily, avoiding Kate's gaze as she runs her bright red talons along the edge of the counter, stiffening as she awaits Kate's reply; the news that would kill her relationship with Castle once and for all.

"Asked me? Asked me what?"

"Oh, tsk, tsk, Richard," she tuts, shaking her head, a mean but delighted little grin appearing on her face. "To be wife number three, of course. He pined for you for long enough. Kept putting me off whenever I came to town with some lame excuse about being too busy or too tired. But I knew…"

"Knew what exactly?"

"That he was _in love_ with you, Detective Beckett."

"Oh…_that_," mutters Kate, wishing she hadn't asked, because she's pretty sure that _jealous_ Meredith is even worse than _pissed off_ Meredith.

"_Oh that_?" the actress repeats, mimicking Kate. "You say it like it's nothing. Like it _means_ nothing. I had that man's love once. Dumbest thing I ever did, cheating on him…even if it felt fantastic at the time. The sex, not the cheating part," she clarifies, as if this will make her selfish actions any better.

"Can…can we just drop it please?" asks Kate, squirming at the frankness with which this woman discusses absolutely everything.

"Drop it? Why are you so uncomfortable talking about this?"

Kate blushes and bites her lip, trying hard not to let Castle's ex smell her fear. Because turns out the woman, for all her outward appearance, is a mindreader worthy of a circus sideshow.

"I…because it's private."

"Private? I see," replies Meredith, but she's frowning, as if understanding why a topic like this might be considered private is beyond her.

"No. No, I don't think you do. I don't think you would know private if it jumped up and bit you on the…"

"Ohhh," gasps Meredith, followed by a sharp intake of breath and a cunning smile. "You haven't told him yet, have you?"

And there she goes with the mind-meld trick.

"Told him what?"

"You know for a really smart woman you can be pretty dumb when it counts. That you're in love with him, Detective."

"Please. Stop. Talking."

Kate spits out the words, wanting nothing more than for this woman to stop spilling her innermost thoughts and fears out all over the kitchen so they can dissect them as if in Lanie's morgue.

"What are you so afraid of, Kate? That he _doesn't_ love you back? That he'll _break_ your heart? That this isn't _it_ for him too?"

For a flighty, insincere, self-obsessed bimbo she has remarkably good instincts when it comes to matters of the heart. Kate is thrown by her incisiveness, and it seems to make her helpless not to engage in a conversation she never would have envisaged having with this particular woman in a million years.

* * *

"I know that he loves me. I know," she eventually admits, topping up her tea and then pushing the pot aside, fingers wrapping around the handle of the cup just a little too firmly.

"_So_…he finally told you?" she nods knowingly. "How touching."

It's almost a sneer, but Kate hears the longing threaded through her remark. Meredith knows what it is to be loved by this man, even if he has evolved a lot over the last couple of decades, and she imagines it must hurt a hell of a lot knowing that you've been irrevocably replaced in Richard Castle's affections. She imagines it feeling something like the sun being switched off...forever.

"Yes, it was, actually," says Kate, absentmindedly, letting her thoughts drift back to her diminishing view of the world in the cemetery, his kind blue eyes hovering above hers, pleading with her until everything faded to black. And then his tears in her apartment, pleading this time too for her to choose life…with him; near-death situations both, though with slightly different levels of urgency.

"You look…less than delighted," notes Meredith, jolting her. "You _do_ love him back?" she asks, settling further into her stool, her elbows propped on the counter now, cup of tea cradled in both hands, mirroring Kate.

Her voice has taken on a less milk-curdling quality; tone less strident, volume lower, the note of attack melting away to leave her sounding softer, closer to normal, and genuinely interested.

Kate is still on her guard, but she realizes she's being drawn into a discussion with this woman that she finds herself helpless to resist, perhaps just needing the chance to discuss this with...someone. Someone who knows him in this way too.

"Of course…of course I love him. It's just…the threat of imminent death always seems to accompany these declarations," she admits with a shaky laugh, spattering her insecurity right out across the counter, even as she tries to pretend that it doesn't matter, that twice was enough for her and she sees it at some point every single day; in a touch, a kindness, leaking right out of his eyes.

Because he hasn't told her since, not once since they got together, that he loves her.

On some level Kate hates herself for confiding in this woman. On another level she thinks no one else, except possibly Gina, could understand this better.

"So, you're afraid he didn't mean it? Heat of the moment thing?"

Kate decides not to incriminate herself any further, fairly certain that Meredith will just keep on talking anyway without the need for more prompting from her.

"Let me tell you something, Kate. I've known Richard for twenty years, and much as I hate to admit it, in all that time I've never seen him so committed to anyone or anything before, aside from Alexis."

She sips daintily from the teacup as she lets her words sink in.

"Believe me, if there is one thing I know, it is Richard Castle in love, and that man has it worse than I've ever seen him. And you didn't give it up easily, from what I've seen, and from the little I could squeeze out of Alexis. He waited for you."

"We both waited…until it was right," Kate corrects.

"He was a child when I married him. An impetuous, impatient, self-centered child. Having Alexis made him grow up…a lot. But even that responsibility had nothing like the effect you've had on him. He wasn't willing to wait for anything back then. If he wanted something or someone, he just went out and bought it or charmed his way until he got it."

"I don't know whether to be flattered or disappointed."

"You turned him into a better man. Take the credit. Stake your claim for God's sake. Because heaven knows there are lines of women out there who'd kill to be in your shoes."

If this piece of seemingly genuinely offered advice surprises her, Kate doesn't let it show.

* * *

"Why did you cheat on him?" she asks Meredith, suddenly, boldly, driven by a desire to understand a hurtful act of stupidity and selfishness she can't ever fathom wanting to carry out herself. "I…I hear regret in your voice when you talk about him sometimes, and… _Why?_"

Meredith sets down her teacup, turns it around a few times, and then stares into the small collection of leaves that have settled in the bottom of the pale yellow liquid, as if they might possibly contain the answer to Kate's question.

"I was bored. Bored and lonely. Scared even. Alexis wasn't quite what you'd call '_planned_'. We barely knew one another, in fact. But Richard is a romantic and a traditionalist at heart, despite first appearances. So we got married, tried to make the nuclear family he craved so badly."

"But you didn't want that?"

"Motherhood was never for me. Besides, I grew up with two parents. Two parents who hated one another, but stayed married for the sake of the kids. The mystique was gone for me. I had no need to pursue the romantic notion of the warm, stable, two-parent family Richard had spent so many years longing for."

Kate thinks of Castle's fatherless upbringing and how hard he tries to maintain that it doesn't matter, and she wonders how much of that is true. That he has all the family he needs in Alexis and Martha, maybe Kate now too. How he taught himself to be the one thing that was missing from his own life; the very thing Alexis needed and he had to go without. A father with no role model to fall back on, no blueprint, no road map.

"He took to fatherhood like a duck to water. Was besotted with our daughter from the second he laid eyes on her. It was quite something to see," says Meredith, her eyes glazing over as she pursues the memory.

She pushes her cup towards Kate and the detective tops up her tea once more, before settling back to hear more of the actress' take on that pivotal time in her life.

"And I…I just felt…more and more inadequate. Sidelined. My looks were the only thing I had going for me, or at least that's what I thought at the time. I needed to prove to myself that I wasn't the unattractive, irrelevant, useless thing I felt since giving birth to a child who I could see didn't really need me. Who was in fact probably better off without me."

Hearing Meredith's perspective leaves Kate feeling slightly sorry for the woman. Not all women are cut out to be mothers, and it's clear that she's not one of them. But Alexis did need her. Still needs her to this day.

* * *

"It devastated him," says Kate plainly, without sugarcoating. "When you cheated on both of them."

"I know that now. Don't you think I know that now? And it should have told me something about how much he cared. But…I wasn't one for sticking at things, working through the messy stuff to make it work. Never have been. I needed a fresh start. Thought it was best for everyone if I just left."

"But you regret it now?"

"If you're asking me do I wish Richard and I were still together, still married, then the answer is no. You have nothing to fear from me. But…he does need to hear how you feel about him. For all his charisma and childish exuberance, he is still an insecure little boy at heart. Don't let him go too long without telling him that you love…"

The metallic rasp and sharp click of a key turning in the lock surprises them both. Kate puts her cup down on the counter with an inelegant clatter, as her hand flies to her mouth, the interruption making her feel guilty, sullied, as if she's been caught colluding with the enemy somehow.

* * *

_On the other side of the front door…_

"So, I have a surprise for you, pumpkin, that's going to make you feel a _whole_ lot better. Your mom is here," Castle announces to his daughter, fingers already outstretched, reaching for the lock.

"But I thought you said Kate was waiting for us at home?" says Alexis, sounding disappointed, a realization Castle tries not to take too much pleasure in. "We were going to trade precinct and dorm room gossip."

"Kate _is_ waiting for you. But so it your mom," he says brightly.

"Wait a second. Dad, are you telling me that you left Kate _alone_ in the loft with Meredith?"

"You mean your mother."

"Same thing. Just answer me, dad."

"Well, your mom technically arrived _after_ I left, but… _Why?_"

"Are you _insane_?" his daughter asks him.

Alexis snatches the keys from her father's hand and jambs it into the lock, throwing him a withering look over her shoulder.

"What…?" he yelps.

"_Men_," mutters Alexis, shaking her head and flinging open the front door.

"Honey, I'm home," sings Castle, from behind his daughter's coppery head, evidently trying to be funny.

"Oh, thank god," say both women at the exact same time, their careful détente forgotten, as Castle and Alexis look from one woman to the other checking for any obvious damage to persons or property.

Surprisingly, all seems to be in order.

Meredith rushes over to greet Alexis, folding her up in a dramatic, over-the-top hug, while Kate seizes Castle by the wrist, dragging him towards the office before he can even take off his coat.

She stops midway across the floor, turning back to look at Meredith for a second.

"Rick, wait for me in the office, would you? I…I'll just be a second," she tells him, waving his off with her hands and a stern look when he hesitates to do as she asks.

* * *

Alexis, still a little worn out after her bout of mono, is dragging her bag in from the hall by herself, while Meredith is touching up her lipstick over by the counter.

"Alexis, I'll help you with that laundry in a second. I just…I need to talk to your dad first," calls Kate, depositing the bag in the laundry room and then returning to the kitchen.

She turns to Meredith, who was watching them interact, a veneer of loss on her face once more as if she thinks she doesn't belong.

"You were wrong," Kate tells her, once Alexis is out of earshot.

"Excuse me?" asks Meredith, the tight, protective, haughty edge back in her voice.

"All those years ago, and now, still. You're wrong, you know. Your daughter _does_ need you. She always will."

"But…I don't know how to…I'm not a laundry-doing kind of mom," she confesses.

"Then be the kind of mom that you are. Don't try to be anything else. Just…be Alexis' mother. Because whatever you can offer her, I guarantee she'll grab it with both hands."

Kate turns to walk away, knowing that Castle won't wait for her indefinitely without getting up to some kind of mischief.

"Kate?" calls Meredith across the loft.

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

* * *

Castle is fiddling with the iPad he left charging on his desk, trying to download the latest update to some word game app when the signal drops out and he curses.

"Everything okay while I was gone? Your text sounded a little frantic," he tells her, pulling his iPhone out of his pocket to swipe at the screen.

He reads her message aloud.

"_Get your ass back here NOW!_ I mean that's pretty awesome, if you were actually looking for me, I just…"

"Rick, I need to talk to you," Kate says, in one great rush of words, her tone as flat as a prairie.

He sets his iPad down carefully on the desk, putting the screen to sleep, the download forgotten.

"I should probably check on them just to make sure that Meredith isn't…"

"Meredith is fine. Alexis will be fine. We need to talk," Kate insists.

"That sounds…I don't think I like the way that sounds, Kate," says Castle cagily, sinking down onto the edge of his desk, discarding his phone a few inches away, and turning all of his attention on her.

Kate paces to the window, looks out on the grey, damp, New York day that leaves SoHo looking tired and uncared for, rusty fire escapes cutting vicious slashes across the front of the cream-colored building across the street.

"I leave you alone with my ex-wife for half an hour, and suddenly we need to talk?" he says, scrubbing a hand down over his face. "What exactly did she say to you, Kate? Because she can be a _vindictive_, _spiteful_…"

"Castle, stop," says Kate, turning away from the window, needing to summon the words that will prevent his mind from running away with itself, and in completely the wrong direction too.

"What? Kate, what is it? Just tell me," he asks, his voice taking on a desperate edge, a layer of unease coating every word.

"I…I need you to _know_ something. Something I should have told you a long time ago," she says, arms crossed awkwardly over her chest for self-protection as she paces the floor, her heart sending a pounding rush of blood to her ears.

"Well, whatever it is, no matter how bad, we can deal with it. Kate, please…just, come over here?" he asks, holding out a hand to her.

Kate pauses for a second near one of his bookshelves. She spies a copy of Heat Wave, thinks about the dedication (declaration) he made to her for everyone, the whole world, to see. She hears bits and pieces of Meredith's advice from today; her personal regrets, her shortcomings, and how they contributed to the failure of her marriage in the most major of ways.

"I…I need you to know just how much I love you, Castle. That's all," she says simply, shrugging, then she reaches out her own hand to join with his, breaching the gap between them.

"I'm sorry. Could you back it up a little? Did you just say that you _love_ me? _Kate?_" asks Castle, his eyes wide, face still far too serious.

She steps closer, letting the tug of his hand reel her in.

"Mmm-hmm," she hums, nodding, her eyes searching his for a reaction. "I did. I _do_. And I'm sorry it's taken me so long to tell you, but…"

The rest of her words are smothered by the fierce press of his mouth over hers, stealing the breath from her lungs. His hand slides around her waist, fingers settling against her spine, drawing her towards him. The fingers of his other hand slide up under her hair, bracing her neck as he pulls back slightly, lips ghosting back and forth over hers, hungry, swollen and damp.

Kate cups his face in her hands, thumbs making rhythmic sweeps over and over his cheekbones, the skin so soft and still chilled from the outside air.

"So, you're okay with this? That I waited to tell you, I mean?"

"Kate, we're not Amtrak. We're not running our relationship according to some pre-ordained timetable. Whatever you're comfortable with."

"I'm comfortable now…with you. More than comfortable, Castle. I'm in love with you."

* * *

A throat clears behind them before he can even think to say it back, and they both pivot towards the source of the noise.

"Sorry to break up this touching little scene," says Meredith dryly. "But your daughter and I are going out for a little fresh air. Maybe some lunch, if she feels up to it."

"Have fun," says Kate, before Castle can stitch together a coherent reply. "And tell her…tell her ice cream is good for her throat."

Castle sits there on the edge of his desk, stunned.

"Did you just share parenting tips with my ex-wife?" he asks, once Meredith leaves the room, his fingertips walking their merry way around her waist.

"Don't be ridiculous. It's just ice cream," says Kate, stepping closer to him again, wrapping her arms around his torso, a secret smile on her lips.

"But you were nice to her, and she…she _smiled_," he says, with something close to amazement in his voice.

"We may have reached an understanding," acknowledges Kate, keeping her mouth shut on the actual details.

"An understanding? _With Meredith?_ That'll be a first," he laughs, nervously. "Cost me a fortune and a top class divorce lawyer. You're in the wrong job, Kate," he jokes.

"She's not that bad," sighs Kate, laying her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes.

"_You're_ not that bad," he whispers, tightening his arms around her. Understatement of the year.

"Don't think this means I'm lining myself up to be wife number three," she mutters, feeling him stiffen under her touch as soon as the words are out and breathing, his fingers pressing hard into her spine.

He thinks this means she doesn't want to marry him. She _definitely_ knows otherwise. Because when, not _if_ he proposes, _when_, she plans to make him the only husband she will ever have, and she will be the only wife that ever counted; the last one, the keeper. Soul mates.

_A/N: Hope that was enjoyable. Not sure how the show will handle any screen time Meredith and Kate get to share…pretty sure it won't be this though. Liv :)_


End file.
